Mitt Romney’s Campaign Should Have Faith in His Faith
By Michael Kinsley Jul 18, 2012 6:31 PM ET
Mitt Romney planned to run for U.S. president as a successful businessman who would bring some hard- headed business common sense and smarts to the job of running the badly dysfunctional federal government.
Like Senator John Kerry in 2004, Romney must now be puzzled about how what he thought was his strongest asset (in Kerry’s case, his honorable service in the Vietnam War; in Romney’s, his successful career at Bain Capital LLC) could have molted into a liability. The answer is in part skilled demagoguery from the other side (yes, I mean you, Mr. President) and in part deserved punishment for overplaying your hand (military experience in Kerry’s case, transferable business skills in Romney’s).
If he can’t run exclusively as a business genius, Romney will have another problem that otherwise might have gone away: People just don’t like him. If he was going to restore the economy and America’s place in the world, they wouldn’t care. If he can’t guarantee delivery, his apparent inability to connect with people on an emotional level becomes much more important.
People close to Romney swear that he’s both a good person and a great guy, and that ought to be easy enough to believe. So what’s his problem? Is he too handsome? Does he look too much like a president ever to be elected president? Has he spent too many years in the high-finance cocoon to know how to talk with people outside it? I don’t know. Whatever the cause, I have the solution. Romney had it in his hands, and threw it away.
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